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Time Warner, NBC help out tardy viewers

By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

NEW YORK  NBC Universal gave a big boost on Monday to a Time Warner Cable service that promises to help schedule-challenged cable customers keep up with their favorite shows.

Missing Mr. Monk? Start Over lets you hit a button to go back to the start of the show.

The entertainment giant agreed to let Time Warner use popular programs — including The West Wing, Law & Order: SVU and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno — on a cable service called Start Over, which will be launched next month in Columbia, S.C.

With Start Over, digital cable customers who miss the beginning of certain shows, but who tune in before the end, can push a button and go back to the start. They also can pause and rewind the show — but can't fast-forward through commercials.

The service lets viewers act on impulse or because of unexpected delays. They don't have to plan ahead to record a show, as they do with digital video recorders (DVRs).

"It's like a mulligan. You get an extra try with friendly partners," says Time Warner Cable Executive Vice President Peter Stern. He says that Start Over is "the most popular feature we've tested (for video)."

The company says it plans an ambitious rollout for Start Over, but is still deciding which markets will get the new service first.

Time Warner sees Start Over as another sweetener to lure customers to pay the extra $10 or so a month for digital service, which also brings more channels and adds services including video on demand (VOD).

But programmers and networks must give Time Warner permission to store and transmit their shows. Many have resisted cable operator pleas to offer shows on a VOD channel for time-shifted viewing.

Start Over allays some of their worries. With VOD, "You have to push to get viewers back to your live content," says NBC Universal Cable President David Zaslav. "The attraction of Start Over is that there's no fast-forwarding through commercials, and it keeps you on the traditional television platform."

Start Over viewers will be counted in the traditional audience ratings, and those with Time Warner DVRs can't record the shows once they've gone back to the beginning. NBC's shows are a big attraction, although the agreement also enables Time Warner to add programs from NBC Universal's USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo and Sci-Fi to the Start Over line-up.

Start Over also will have shows from networks controlled by Time Warner (including WB, TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network), Scripps (DIY Network, HGTV and Food Network) and Comcast (OLN, The Golf Channel and G4).

The pact with NBC was part of a larger deal in which Time Warner agreed to continue carrying NBC Universal's cable channels — including newcomers Universal HD and Telemundo Puerto Rico — for two years.